State-run hydropower major NHPC’s capital expenditure (capex) will go up by 38 per cent Y-o-Y to ₹10,800 crore in the current financial year, its CMD R K Vishnoi said on Tuesday.
At the CPSUs Independence Day celebrations, Vishnoi noted that the company spent a record ₹7,800 crore on capex in FY23, NHPC said.
The target has been increased to over ₹10,800 crore during the current financial year. Also, NHPC is soon poised to be among the world’s top 10 hydropower companies, and every employee should work towards achieving this goal, he added.
Vishnoi also congratulated the power station teams who rectified the damage caused to three power stations in Himachal Pradesh due to recent flash floods and restored the generation quickly.
For Q1 FY24, NHPC reported a consolidated net profit of ₹1,095 crore against ₹719 crore in Q4 FY23 and ₹1,054 crore in Q1 FY23.
Its consolidated total income rose to ₹3,010 crore in Q1 FY24 from ₹2,229 crore in Q4 FY23 and ₹2,887 crore in Q1 FY23.
The company’s flagship 2,000 megawatt (MW) Subansiri Lower hydropower project is expected to be commissioned by December 2023.
Besides, the power generator is also pursuing pumped storage projects (PSPs) of more than 20,000 megawatts (MW) capacity across states such as Maharashtra, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
PSPs utilise surplus grid power available from thermal power stations or other sources to pump up water from the lower to the upper reservoir and reproduce power during peak demand when energy is scarce.